Police Reviewing Rape Suspect`s Death

POMPANO BEACH -- Police officials today will continue reviewing whether two officers were justified in shooting and killing a convicted rapist early on Saturday.

Homer Davis Jr., 32, was killed during a foot chase that erupted into a gunfight with officers Vernice Brown and Alan Johnson about 12:45 a.m., police spokeswoman Sandra King said. The two officers confronted Davis after he abducted a woman and tried to rape her, police said.

The officers, who are members of the Police Department`s tactical squad, were near the Pinewood Apartments in the 600 block of Northwest Fourth Avenue about 12:30 a.m., police said. They were flagged down in their unmarked car by a bicyclist who said he saw Davis grab a woman and place a gun to her head across the street.

Davis ran and exchanged gunfire with the officers, King said. The chase ended in the 700 block of Northwest Sixth Avenue.

Residents and merchants in the area on Sunday praised Brown and Johnson, saying they probably saved the woman`s life.

``Anybody who shoots at a cop deserves what he gets,`` Jocelein Pericles said.

But Davis` mother, Elizabeth Davis, said on Sunday she is not sure whether her son was in the wrong.

``I don`t know what happened, but justice should be done,`` Elizabeth Davis said. ``Too many police (officers) are shooting people and getting away with it.``

The officers have not been suspended, and initial accounts indicate the officers acted properly, King said.

The shooting will be reviewed by the internal affairs division and the Broward State Attorney`s Office. The findings will then be reviewed by a Broward County grand jury, she said.